A cut-THROAT battle to win passengers on direct flights to New York from Scotland's key airports has taken off.

Continental Airlines celebrated a decade of its Scottish operations by doubling the frequency of its services to the Big Apple from Edinburgh to two flights a day - with return flights available from £373 including taxes.

That is in addition to the carrier's daily link from Glasgow, taking its total frequency from Scotland to its New York hub at Newark Liberty airport to 21 flights a week.

The airline is hoping to win a bigger share of the booming transatlantic air travel market by persuading Scots business travellers to fly direct to the US from their local airport, instead of a time-consuming transfer via London.

The summer timetable represents a massive 50 per cent increase on the winter capacity, meaning the airline has an additional 2,450 seats to sell on the route every week.

However, Continental says it is confident that most flights will be flying full - with its optimism based on a big increase in the number of passengers flying between Scotland and America in the last year.

Continental first landed in Scotland in 1998, linking Glasgow and New York, with Edinburgh added in 2004.

"Strong year-round performance among leisure travellers has been underpinned by extremely favourable exchange rates and our business cabin bookings are also very healthy."

Rival US operator Delta is to launch a new daily service from Edinburgh to New York's JFK airport from the start of May.

But Schumacher is not worried about the new competition.

"We think one of the reasons we have been able to operate out of Scotland for 10 years now is that we know our markets," he said.

"We have competition on many of our transatlantic routes. Our success is not a function of what our competitors do, but what we do every day.

"We have a pedigree and are confident that with the largest hub in New York at Newark we will continue to be the first-choice for travel to the US from Scotland."

Continental is actively targeting Scots business flyers willing to pay premium fares costing around five times the cost of an economy fare to sit in its BusinessFirst cabin.

Flyers who pay the extra have their every whim catered for - from the moment they leave their home or office until they reach their destination. The business cabin is set up for the exclusive use of just 16 passengers each using a spacious sleeper seat.